In this issue we’re talking about the customer voice. But, before going there, I’d like to share what happens when you don’t have it.

Over the years I’ve talked to many distributors or manufacturers who hate their platforms- eCom, PIM, etc. One common denominator I often find: The project didn’t start with the customer.

It started internally, trying to solve a problem. They needed a platform. There was an ‘out-of-the-box’ integration. They bought based on price.

And, now, they’re stuck. Pricing doesn’t work right. Catalog management is nightmare. Every change is a project. And customers aren’t using it.

It’s not that their customers don’t like it, they just can’t use it.

A recent RFP comes to mind. An enterprise distributor had all kinds of crazy order workflows, catalog restrictions and other requirements.

A ton of custom applications. Serious development effort.

When we dug into it, we discovered something remarkable: all of these customizations were built for ONE customer.

One.

Now, before you think that was crazy—it was their biggest customer. And without those specific workflows, catalog restrictions, etc. this customer would NOT be able to use the platform for purchases.

By solving for their biggest customer’s actual requirements, they facilitated online purchases from their biggest customer and opened the floodgates to other customers with the same requirements.

That’s the power of building for customers requirements first.

This isn’t just about eCommerce. It’s about your entire digital roadmap—including PIM, OMS, CRM, CPQ, CMS, all of it.

You’re going to spend big money on these platforms. Without full visibility into who your customers are and how they actually work, you’re making multi-million dollar bets without understanding customer friction.

Here’s why that’s a problem: You’ll need to translate customer requirements into platform capabilities.

Until you can do that, requirements are just talk. They’re features and functionality on a checklist, something vendors can easily say ‘yes’ to.

Defining true customer requirements de-risks your digital roadmap.

There are 3 fundamental areas I recommend distributors & manufacturers account for when planning out the roadmap.

1. Who Your Customers Are

The first critical component is understanding who your customers are—not demographically, but structurally and operationally.

This is especially important for your largest customers, because if you cannot match their complexity, they will not be able to use your platform.

Account Structure & Organizational Complexity

Find your biggest customers. You’ll need to understand how they’re organized

• How many different locations do they have?
• How does their organizational hierarchy work—local, regional, state, national?
• How will their structure translate to hierarchies in your platform?
• How does pricing work among locations or divisions?

Customer Roles & Permissions

This is critical. You need to understand what customer roles exist and what permissions each role needs:

• Do you have designers who need to access the platform to find products for specification?
• Do you have shoppers who can browse and select but not purchase?
• Who needs approval authorities?

As Val discussed in Issue 2 about the Jobs to be Done framework, understanding these roles isn’t just about security—it’s about enabling each person to do their job effectively.

You need to be able to assign the right permissions to these roles because if you can’t, your customers won’t be able to use your platform the way their organization requires.

2. What Processes They Have

The second critical area is understanding how your customers actually work. This will dictate order workflows, approval processes, and how your platform needs to function.

Buying & Approval Processes

• How do they buy?
• What approval processes do they have?
• At what stages do approvals need to happen?
• Are approvals done by users, groups or other means?
• Do approval requirements change based on order value, product type, or location?
• How does procurement work in their organization?

Specification & Product Selection

What types of products do you sell? What markets do you sell into?

If you’re in design-driven market, there’s always specification involved- design or product engineering. In those spaces, you need to understand:

• Who are the different roles involved in product selection? (designers, engineers, specifiers, purchasers)
• How do they search for products?
• What attributes do they need to be able to filter and find products?
• Is specification a collaborative process involving multiple people?
• Do they need to save specifications or share them with others?

Systems & Integration Requirements

Understanding what systems your customers have is crucial for integration planning:

• Do they have ERP systems? Which ones?
• Are there certain systems you hear about repeatedly across customers?
• Do they need punchout capabilities?
• What other procurement or financial systems do they use?
• How do these systems need to interact with your platforms?

The Reality of How They Work

This is where deep customer insights become critical.

Are they searching for products in your catalog? Or are they working from spreadsheets?

Is it a shift manager with a list of recurring items? Or is it an engineer specifying components for a new design?

Do they need a sophisticated search experience? Or do they need the fastest possible path from “I know what I need” to “order submitted”?

The answer isn’t the same for every customer or market. That’s why you need to understand their actual processes before you select platforms that are supposed to serve them.

3. The Data You Need to Support Your Customers

Customer Data.

It’s the biggest problem everyone has (and no one’s talking about).

Customer data in B2B is a massive, under-addressed challenge. And unless you have the right data in your platforms, you can’t deliver the experiences your customers need.

A lot of this will be oriented toward eCommerce, but it also plays into your quoting process, CPQ platforms, and other systems based on what functionality you’ve learned your customers need.

Market Segmentation

If what I call ‘B2B personalization’ (because, in B2B, the organization is the primary entity) is on the roadmap, you’ll need the right data.

Market segmentation is low-hanging fruit:

• Is this customer in MRO? Plumbing? Electrical?
• How does market segment inform product selection?
• How does it inform content needs?
• Can you shape experiences based on segment data?

Between roles, market segmentation, and other customer attributes, you’re at least getting a good start.

Behavioral Data & Analytics

What are you measuring in terms of analytics and engagement—at an account level and at a role level?

• Are you tracking customer engagement with content and assets?
• Are you keeping track of how they specify products?
• Are you organizing this data in a way that’s actionable?

There’s a big gap in the tools available for this right now. But the reality is you need to be able to have that data to understand what’s going on with your customers and serve them better.

Understanding these three areas—who your customers are, what processes they have, and what data you need—can directly inform every platform decision in your digital roadmap:

eCommerce: Customer roles and permissions, approval workflows, product findability, account structures, and the buying experience all stem from customer requirements discovery.

PIM: Merchandising, search and findability, product attributes customers need to filter and select products—all informed by understanding how customers actually work.

OMS: Approval workflows, fulfillment processes, distribution requirements, and how you manage order delivery to customers.

CRM: Understanding the sales process, what salespeople need visibility into to service customers, and how quoting works.

CPQ: Complex product configuration, pricing rules, quoting workflows—all based on customer processes and requirements.

If you don’t understand customer requirements before you select these platforms, you’re gambling with millions of dollars.

There are two complementary approaches: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative: Deep Customer Interviews

Take a cross-section of your customers:

Your Best Customers: You need to understand these customers because they’ll ensure your platform success. If your best customers can’t use it, you’re in big trouble.

High-Potential Customers: Find customers you’d love to have more business from. Understanding them means you’re building a tool your salespeople can demonstrate: “We’ve built this specifically to help companies like you work better with us.” As those customers start using it, they start buying more.

Lost Opportunities: If you can, grab a couple of customers who chose a competitor. Find out why. What are they getting from that competitor’s platform that you couldn’t provide? This is invaluable intelligence.

Send your team to sit with these customers. Watch them work. Understand their processes. Ask about their challenges. Document everything.

Quantitative: Structured Surveys

A well-designed survey complements your qualitative research:

• Include areas for customers to give feedback about internal processes or problems they have
• Ideally you want objective data directly related to platform capabilities
• Structure questions so responses can be mapped to platform capabilities—whether eCommerce, PIM, OMS, or other systems

The combination of qualitative depth and quantitative breadth gives you the complete picture.

Customer requirements aren’t just a nice-to-have. It’s the critical step that de-risks your entire digital roadmap.

Without it, you’re selecting platforms based on demos and feature checklists. With it, you can begin the process of translating requirements to capabilities (for another day).

The manufacturers and distributors who succeed in digital transformation aren’t the ones with the fanciest platforms. They’re the ones who understood their customers first—then selected platforms that could actually serve them.

In the end, making your 6 or 7-figure roadmap decisions on customer voice reduces customer friction and increases adoption.

For more information, check out the ‘Customer Requirements Checklist’ in the newsletter email.